Baseball players don’t require their athletes to have their number on their helmet when they step into the batter’s box. Basketball doesn’t require players to tattoo their number on their forehead; they don’t need numbers on their headbands either. The NFL doesn’t require their teams to put player numbers on the front of helmets—although some teams rock the numbers as a fashion statement (we’re looking at you Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Football Giants). But the NHL doesn’t care about any of that noise. They’re setting their own trend and requiring NHL teams to add numbers to the front of all players’ helmets before the beginning of the regular season.

Who says the NHL isn’t a trailblazing league?

In a seriesoftweets, NHL Senior Manager of Communication Schuyler Baehman explained the new, required look for all 30 teams:

“Player numbers will be added to the front forehead (centered) location of all player helmets at the start of this season. Front numbers are not required to be placed on goaltenders headgear. Numbers on the front and back of helmets will measure no less than 1.25” and no more than 2” in height.”

Not all change is bad—there have been plenty of changes over the short preseason for the upcoming year. But what is the point of dropping the numbers onto the helmets? Broadcasters have seemed to be doing just fine figuring out which player is which on the ice for the last fifty years and on-ice officials do a pretty good job figuring out which player belongs in the penalty box. Is there another reason for making the change?

In a day and age that every single potential change is discussed and debated, it’s interesting that this move is coming out only eight days before the beginning of the regular season. In the grand scheme of things, the new numbers will affect equipment managers around the league than anyone else.

If nothing else, at least we’ll have yet new change to look forward to this season. Now if they could just change home teams back to wearing white, then we might be onto something.

As shots kept getting harder (and sailing higher) and players kept getting bigger and stronger, the NHL evolved to find ways to make the violent sport of hockey survivable enough for players to make it through lengthy regular seasons. Yet in a sport in which toughness (and some might even say masculinity) is always at the forefront – whether it be in scrums or the borderline insane act of placing your body in front of a 100 mph slap shot – almost every bit of added safety found some opposition.

Jacques Plante received plenty of grief when he became the first NHL goalie to don a primitive mask, even from his own head coach. Hockey players were so strongly resistant to wearing helmets that the league didn’t require players who already skated without helmets to don one. (Call it a “grandfather with a bloody nose” clause.)

Each time, there was at least some thought that such innovations would reduce the effectiveness of the players. For instance: people felt that a mask might hinder the peripheral vision of a netminder.

One of the most common debates regarding player safety comes in the form of whether or not the NHL should force its players to wear visors. Proponents of such a rule can boast obvious examples of athletes who suffered from disturbing eye injuries playing hockey. From Steve Yzerman to Al MacInnis to Bryan Berard and Mike Mottau (seen in this post’s photo), the sport has no shortage of cautionary tales in which a visor might have saved the day.

Both sides have some reasonable arguments, so we thought we would ask: should the NHL require players to wear visors? And if so, should the league follow the formula created by the helmet requirements by allowing players who previously played in the NHL to be “grandfathered in” and play without one or should the NHL/NHL Players Association force players old and new to skate with a visor in? Let us know by voting in the poll below.